The present invention relates to apparatus for viewing or observation of webs of photographic paper or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus which serve to permit simultaneous viewing of the front and rear sides or surfaces of successive portions of a web of exposed and developed photographic paper so that the attendant or attendants can readily recognize unsatisfactory prints at the front side of the web while simultaneously observing marks, exposure factors and/or other information which is applied to the rear side of the web.
Certain presently known apparatus for viewing of webs of exposed and developed photographic paper comprise means for guiding the web, which is being withdrawn from a supply reel and is collected by a takeup reel, in such a way that the web is located in a plane making an acute angle with a horizontal plane so that an attendant standing or sitting in front of the apparatus can look downwardly onto successive prints. As a rule, presently known apparatus of the just outlined character are designed to accept and support supply reels for relatively short webs of photographic paper, normally in the range of up to 100 meters. The just described apparatus are not suited for use in modern film processing plants wherein photographic films are exposed, developed and copied in a fully automatic way. Such plants can operate economically only if the webs of photographic paper are collected on reels each of which carries a very large roll of convoluted paper, e.g., a roll containing up to and in excess of 300 meters of paper. Depending on the width of photographic paper, a reel which carries up to and in excess of 300 meters of convoluted web material is extremely bulky and heavy so that its manipulation is cumbersome and necessitates the exertion of a substantial effort. Moreover, many presently known apparatus do not allow for observation of discrete prints for relatively long intervals of time; such long intervals are especially desirable when the attendant must view the prints at the front side of the web simultaneously with indicia which are applied to the rear side of the web and represent, among others, data pertaining to exposure factors during imaging of originals onto the web in a photographic copying machine.